A perfectly serviceable scifi thriller with some interesting ideas, there was nothing really standout about it but no glaring horrible elements either. I would have appreciated more exploration of the changes to society and social mores along with fleshing out the luddites but as is it was a fine rental grade movie.
Slipstream-
Some memorable performances(including Mark Hammill playing a character that had me thinking of Luke in ROTJ!) and flat out AMAZING location shooting, not to mention a interesting reality created through stuff like set design earns this post apocalyptic movie a higher score than most give it. The plot is flimsy and shit but importantly I was never bored and often glued to the screen, great B movie.
Hudson Hawk. It’s insane, wild, kinda funny in an campy/over-the-top way, and definitely too self-aware. It was also marketed as badly as possible, but not really a bad movie. Watch with ample popcorn and friends and laugh as an assortment of Hollywood actors chew the scenery with truly absurd amounts of ham.
Last Action Hero. Also poorly-marketed, but really a very good movie. It’s one of the best send-ups of Hollywood action tropes, and is even better for being done before that came in vogue. Despite that, it actually features some really meaningful scenes about identity and choice, but without ever preaching any of it.
This is going back a bit, but I really liked the Liza Minelli, Burt Reynolds, Gene Hackman flick Lucky Lady. Not really sure why it bombed so badly, but the “fish fart” line probably helped.
Wing Commander. Not a great movie, but not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Sadly, it has the Wing Commander games to compare itself to, and some of those were actually better movies than the WC movie was. It doesn’t help that this is a movie which is neither funny nor involves dancing, making it a poor fit for Freddie Prince Jr.
Plus, they changed stuff from the games. For a certain flavor of sci fi geek, that’s tantamount to kicking polite children.
Also, I’m gonna just come out and say it: The Star Wars prequels (take a shot when someone links the Red Letter Media videos some time in the next five posts). Campy, some poor dialogue and wooden acting, and excessive special effects. So yeah, they are Star Wars films. A series that traces its roots back to Flash Gordon is always going to have a certain degree of camp, though the Phantom Menace really was bad in many ways. They still don’t warrant the kind of blind hatred I’ve seen people fling at them.
I agree, with the note that The Phantom Menace really is a terrible mess of a film(it made more sense in hindsight but watching it in 1999 was baffling) but Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith are much better but they don’t feel like Star Wars which is I think much of the problem.
Many shortcomings in a film budget and SFX wise can be forgiven if it is well written and has “heart”, see The Terminator. The problem is the prequels had all the money in the world for budget and SFX but lacked “heart”, they feel like what an android would make if you asked it to copy Star Wars.
I disagree at least as far as the third prequel, which I thought was a very good film on its own merits. Been far too long since I watched Attack of the Clones. In fact, I think I only saw the whole movie the one time when it came out.